


Broken Open

by theauthor2010



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: AU, Child Abuse, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-15
Updated: 2013-09-08
Packaged: 2017-12-20 07:39:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 8,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/884704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theauthor2010/pseuds/theauthor2010
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Total Season 2 AU. Scott finds out about Isaac's abuse first when he hears it occur one night. Things begin from there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Scott McCall had been a werewolf for such a short time, but even in that short time had developed a code. It was a code of ethics that was unspoken. He wasn’t even sure he’d consciously thought of it. That code, to Scott, had always included not getting involved in non-werewolf business with his werewolf abilities. That part of the unwritten Scott McCall code flew out the window one Tuesday night.

He had been walking. There had been too many thoughts in his mind and he had been walking to find a better way to deal with them. He was walking through a residential tract when he heard something. He naturally honed in on it with his werewolf senses. He couldn’t help himself and would eventually be glad that he did. The sounds were muffled, but there was no mistaking them for what they were – screams of despair. 

“Please. No. Please! NO!”

Scott immediately rushed down the street, stopping when he heard it. It still shocked him, the way that the wolf could pinpoint the location of noises. It was coming from a small basement window, barely large enough for a person to squeeze through. Scott went down onto his stomach in order to see inside. His eyes flared as he saw what was happening.

A man was wrestling a smaller figure down a staircase into the basement. The man had a tight grip on the other. He had the person’s arms behind his back and was all but carrying him while the person – a teenager – pled hysterically. “Please! Dad! No!” 

Scott recognized him. It was Isaac. He didn’t know the kid well, but they went to school together. He stopped thinking when he saw the man shoved Isaac into what looked like an industrial freezer. The man struck Isaac over the head and shoved him inside. He went to close it, despite animalistic screams from the young man. His eyes flared and he went on pure instinct. The human went out the window and the wolf absolutely took over. He didn’t think of exposure, danger; he didn’t think of anything but Isaac.

He smashed through the basement window as hard as he possibly could. He slid his body through the cracked window, feeling glass cut at his sides. 

The man let go of the freezer’s lid. He backed off in horror. Scott only realized through the man’s horror that he had wolfed out. His eyes had changed and the man assaulting Isaac looked in fear for his life. Scott was glad that he was afraid. “Go,” he said, his voice guttural and inhuman. He slashed at the man, feeling his claws sink into his shoulder. 

The man ran out as fast he possibly could, up the stairs into the house. Scott could hear him running, knowing that he wouldn’t stop running. He wouldn’t stop running for a long time.

Isaac scrambled out of the freezer and onto the floor. “Scott,” he whispered. His eyes were wide and confused. Scott turned back into himself. Isaac was staring at him with confused, terrified eyes. There was also a hint of gratitude masked underneath the pure horror over seeing a nightmare creature saving him.

“Isaac, I promise it’s going to be okay,” he said, helping the boy to his feet.

Isaac pulled away and went back to his knees. Scott then turned to the open freezer and its upturned lid and saw the scratch marks. He saw the matching desperate scratch marks on the walls of the stair well. Scott was no genius, but he understood the implications of what had happened to Isaac completely. That man was Isaac’s father and this wasn’t the first time that Isaac had been in this situation.

Isaac was in front of him, on his knees and sobbing. He had his arms wrapped around himself. His sobs were strange. They weren’t the kind of sobs that Scott would let out if he was terrified. They were small, broken and suppressed. Isaac was trying to look like he wasn’t crying, while he was sobbing on the inside. Scott knelt down next to him and put a hand on Isaac’s shoulder.

“Isaac, I know this is probably terrifying,” Scott said, his voice even. “I promise he won’t hurt you again, though, ever. I won’t let him.” He didn’t know why that was suddenly his job, but he swore it.

Isaac shook his head. “W-what are you Scott?” he asked.

Before Scott could think of a way to answer that loaded question, the boy passed out. Isaac lurched back on his knees and then fell flat. Scott looked at him in horror. What was he to do?

Scott did the only thing he could do. He picked Isaac up and took him out of the house. He knew he should have been thinking about exposure; he should have been thinking about Isaac’s dad running to the cops and telling them about the wolf creature that came in and scared him off, but he couldn’t. All he could think about was getting the other teenager somewhere safe. 

Scott spent the next half hour awkwardly changing Isaac and cleaning the cuts he found on the boy’s back and shoulders. Having a nurse for a mother had rubbed off on him in some ways, he supposed. He then put Isaac in his bed. That was when the fear of exposure started to kick in. He knew that Isaac’s father could definitely tell a skewed version of what happened. 

Isaac, meanwhile, slept in his bed. The boy looked like he was in a coma, somewhere far away. He couldn’t imagine the horrors that Isaac had seen. He couldn’t compare his fear of werewolf exposure to whatever Isaac had endured at his father’s hands. Nobody was going to believe someone screaming about werewolves any way, right? Isaac was what was really important. The rest would just…sort itself out.

Scott at least hoped that it would all sort itself out in the morning. He had a dread, however, that those hopes were useless.


	2. Chapter 2

Isaac woke up to unfamiliar surroundings. He looked around him, heart leaping in a panic. Every single time he woke up in the freezer it was like this. It was coming to from a dead state of unconsciousness. He looked around this time and he couldn’t remember where he was. His dad had dragged him downstairs. He was screaming because he couldn’t take it again and then…

“Shh, Isaac.” 

He looked up to see Scott McCall in front of him. That was when he remembered what had happened to him. He had been pushed inside when the window had shattered and Scott had burst flying through it. Scott, who was not entirely human, had rushed in and sent his father running into the distance. What was Scott? What was he and why had he bothered to save someone like Isaac?

“I promise that I can explain,” Scott said, getting close. When Isaac sat up, Scott sat up next to him. The other teenager looked at him with big eyes. Isaac moved back when Scott reached a hand out to touch him.

“Is my dad hurt?” he asked. He didn’t know why that was the first question out of his mouth. It was probably the only one that would make sense. “Is he dead?” 

“He…um, he ran off,” Scott told Isaac. “He’s unfortunately alive.” 

Isaac blinked at the addition of the word unfortunately. Was Scott implying that his father deserved to die? There was unfamiliar venom in Scott’s voice. Isaac knew instantly that Scott was not the kind to hate, to wish death on someone. This was new for him. Scott didn’t have those horrible, awful feelings.

“What are you?” Isaac asked. It was the simplest question he could manage without his head going fuzzy.

“I’m a werewolf,” Scott said. The words came out like they were the simplest thing ever. This was crazy! This couldn’t be happening! “It’s a really long story, but I’m not going to deny what you saw. I don’t know you that well, but I know that you’re pretty smart. I…I can’t lie. I’m a werewolf, which is why I had the ability to do, um, what I did.” 

That made no sense. It was something out of an absurd dream, or one of the comic books that Isaac had enjoyed when he was a little kid. It was something that could not be true. There was no way that it could be true.

“The freezer…your father…” 

Isaac swallowed and looked up at Scott. “I screwed up,” he said. “He warned me and I screwed up when I was cleaning things up outside for the…” He didn’t even know what he was saying as he started ranting. His father had left him eternally making apologies and even though Scott’s kind eyes told him that he had nothing to apologize for, he just couldn’t stop. He couldn’t stop because there was so much that he had done wrong.  
“You did not deserve it,” Scott said firmly, probably to Isaac’s assertion that he did. “How long has this been happening?” 

“At least eight years,” Isaac said. He was confused. They should have been talking about the fact that Scott was a creature that Isaac was pretty sure only existed in fiction. They should have been talking about anything except for the fact that his father made a pretty regular habit of beating him, shoving him, locking him in the freezer. He didn’t talk about this with anyone, so why was he telling Scott all about it? He found that he just couldn’t stop, no matter what he did. Scott must have had some sort of crazy power over him.

“I promise that he’s not going to hurt you again,” Scott said, his words echoing what he’d said earlier. Isaac thought that was nice.

“He’ll come back, I think,” Isaac said. His father was the kind of man who would deny this. He would deny that he was ever attacked by a werewolf. It was too absurd for someone in his father’s universe to accept.

“Why didn’t you ever tell anyone about him?”

Isaac thought about that for a moment. On the base level there was fear. He was so afraid of his father at this point, that all thoughts of telling someone were gone. His father scared him. His father terrified him and ruled over his entire existence with an iron fist. There was nothing that Isaac could do to keep from being terrified of the man who raised him. There was no way he could escape that fear. On a higher level, Isaac always hoped that he could break through to his father. His father had been a good man once.

While he was reflecting on the true nature of his father, Scott’s cell phone began ringing. Scott picked it up and answered. “Hey Stiles,” he said. “I can’t talk, I’m busy with Isaac. You know Isaac from school? We’re working on some stuff…”

Isaac laughed a little, sadly, at that. Stiles Stilinski was Scott’s best friend. Everyone knew who Stiles was. “I’m sure he hardly knows who you’re talking about,” Isaac muttered, so low he was sure that Scott couldn’t hear it. 

“He-wait, what? Isaac? Stiles, you’re not being serious. Stiles! Okay…I believe you, of course I believe you man.” 

Scott hung up the phone and looked at Isaac. His face was unbelievably pale. He looked shaken. “Isaac,” he said. “That was Stiles. Your father…he was found dead in an alleyway just south of here.”

Isaac felt panic grip his throat. His father was dead. His father couldn’t be dead. There was no way that his father had died. “Did you…did you do something to him Scott?” he asked. Scott could have easily torn his father apart. Isaac had seen the way he moved when he was that werewolf creature. He could have easily killed him.  
“I didn’t,” Scott promised him. Isaac wasn’t that prone to believing people, but there was something incredibly sincere about the look in his eyes. “Stiles says that his dad just responded to the call. Can you stay here? I’ll investigate.”

Isaac nodded.

“And Isaac,” Scott whispered. “I am so sorry if it’s true.”

Isaac was left alone. His father was dead and he couldn’t understand it. He also couldn’t understand Scott, who apologized even though he knew what the man did. Did he know that, deep down, Isaac loved his father? Could his father really be dead and gone? It just didn’t make sense. 

He awaited Scott’s return, barely breathing.


	3. Chapter 3

When Scott arrived at the scene of the crime, Stiles was already there. His best friend was no stranger to death and destruction, but he looked positively anxious to be there. He stood with his hands in his pockets. He was looking down at the floor. Stiles had definitely seen something that had greatly disturbed him. “Stiles,” he said softly. “Dude, what happened to Isaac’s dad?” 

“It was bad Scott,” he said. “The police are saying it’s like a wild animal ripped him apart. My dad is freaking out, because it’s completely mirroring the deaths that occurred last time. The dude was ripped apart violently though, like no animal would ever manage, cause an animal doesn’t have that potential for cruelty. It had to be a werewolf.”   
Scott was horrified. He couldn’t imagine there being another werewolf on the loose.

“Why were you with Isaac anyway?” Stiles asked. He looked Scott up and down. Now, Stiles was no stranger to being in a suspicious situation. Scott, however, wasn’t ready to give him the details about what had occurred. 

“He was in a bad situation; I got him out of it,” Scott explained. “He didn’t have anywhere else to go, so I came over.” 

“Mhm.” Stiles did not believe that for a second. It was true. It just wasn’t…the whole truth.

It was surprisingly easy for Scott and Stiles to sneak around. They were not able to see the body, but splattered on the side of an alleyway was a lot of blood. Whatever had killed Mr. Lahey had most definitely ripped the man’s body to shreds. Scott tried to shut down the rush of satisfaction that hit him at that knowledge. He was not that kind of person.  
Unfortunately, their investigation was cut short by Stiles’ father. The sheriff grabbed them both by the backs of their shirts and pulled them towards him. “I want you both to go home now,” he said, his voice firm. He was angry, but there was also a little fear there. Scott could hear the tremor of fear in the sheriff’s voice and he didn’t blame him, given the situation.

“We just heard and wanted to find out,” Scott said, looking as innocent as he could manage. “We’re friends of Isaac’s and we can’t believe this happened to his father.”  
His words piqued the sheriff’s interest. He looked over and took a deep breath, sighing. “Do you think you boys can find Isaac Lahey and bring him to the station?”  
“Yes,” Scott said. 

“Go then, bring him to the station and stay out of trouble.” With a light shove, they were set off. They went as quickly as they could.

Stiles kept looking at Scott, as they walked back to his house. “Scott,” he finally said, after several round of stare and try to make Scott talk. “When you say that Isaac was in some trouble, what kind of trouble do you mean exactly?”

Scott swallowed and looked over at Stiles. As much as he wanted to talk to his best friend about what happened, he felt that he couldn’t. He did not want anyone to know about the horrible details of what Isaac had been through without Isaac’s explicit consent. “Let’just say,” he said tensely, “that if they knew what Mr. Lahey did in the past, they’d convict Isaac right away even though he was with me.” 

Stiles tensed up at that, but stopped talking. 

“We just have to go,” Scott added. They then hurried to his house. It wasn’t that long until Scott was opening the door.

When they arrived at the house, Isaac was sitting at the corner of the living room. He was basically shaking and staring at the wall. When he saw them, he looked up. “Um, hello,” Stiles said awkwardly.

“What…what happened to my dad?” Isaac asked. 

“He’s dead,” Scott said softly. “I’m sorry Isaac.” He wasn’t really sorry, not really, but he had to say so for Isaac’s sake. Isaac obviously cared about the bastard and that wasn’t for Scott to judge.

Isaac broke at the news. He shook his head and then leaned forward. Scott did the only thing he knew how to do. He had been best friends with Stiles since they were kids. He knew what the early stages of a panic attack looked like and hoped he could curb it as easily as he now could Stiles’. He gave the boy a gentle hug and then grabbed his hand loosely. He didn’t want to restrict him, just wanted to let him know that he was there and that he cared.   
“What do I do Scott?” Isaac asked. 

Scott didn’t answer immediately, so Stiles took over. “The police need to question you,” Stiles said honestly.

Isaac’s face paled at that. “I’m doomed,” he said softly. He looked at Scott and Scott was overwhelmed by the power of the desperation in his eyes. He looked like he was going to throw up. “Scott, if-if he’s dead then…” 

They looked at each other and Scott nodded. He knew that no matter how gruesome the death of Mr. Lahey had been, Isaac would still be convicted the moment they saw what he’d done to his son. It may be cast off as a justified killing, but there was no way they could ignore Lahey’s death in the wake of what had been done to Isaac. 

“I’ll clean up,” Scott said. “Don’t worry Isaac. Stay with Stiles. I’ll call him as soon as it’s clear for you to go to the cops.” 

Scott tried to give Isaac a comforting smile. He hoped what he gave was a comforting smile. He then ran off as fast as he could. He needed to clear the evidence that would incriminate them both in a crime that neither of them committed.


	4. Chapter 4

Isaac found himself staring at Stiles for a long moment. They went to school together, but he barely knew the other boy. “I know he’s a…” Isaac trailed off, unable to say the word he was thinking of. “I know that Scott has special abilities, but how can he…fix my house? I just…I didn’t kill my dad man…”

“I know you didn’t,” Stiles said softly, even though honestly, he had very little reason to believe Isaac. Isaac wasn’t so certain he believed himself, his mind racing a mile a minute. “Don’t worry man. Just trust in Scott. I’ve found that things go much more smoothly if you just trust in Scott.” 

The boy reached out to grab Isaac’s hand and Isaac pulled back, flinching suddenly. He usually was able to control the way he reacted to people, but he was so tired and there were so many people hugging him, touching him. It was more than he could really handle. The barest brush of skin made his heart race painfully and he just wanted to retreat into himself, to hide. 

“I’m sorry about your dad,” Stiles said softly.

“Thanks,” Isaac said. He was having a hard time determining whether or not he was mourning or relieved. He hadn’t hit a point yet where he figured that out. He looked at Stiles for a moment. Even though he was a dweeb with the attention span of a small rodent, Isaac observed people and he knew Stiles was smart. “Do you think people deserve to die sometimes, man?” he asked.

Stiles frowned, furrowing his brow. Isaac could tell that the other teen was really thinking about the answer to that question. “It’ll probably sound cruel but yeah.” 

Isaac nodded. There were so many ways he loved his father, but there were also so many ways that he deserved to die. He made his own child’s existence hell. Isaac knew he was stupid, immature, unfocused and all the million things he’d been called, but still, he’d been hurt so much. “Thanks for answering that,” he said, feeling stupid before sitting back down.

*

Scott went back into the Lahey house, despite the fact that it was warded off by police. He snuck into the broken-in basement window that he’d entered in the first place. He landed with a crash, but on his feet. He looked around him at the dark basement. He couldn’t see much before his werewolf eyes adjusted, but he didn’t need the sight, not at all.

Now that he had a chance to calm down and think about it, he was overwhelmed by the smells of blood and fear. He had to calm himself down and take a deep breath. He recognized exactly the kind of horrors that had happened in the basement before. He could smell the blood, see the scratches and could take it all in. This was a place where Isaac had been put through hell.

He systematically removed the freezer, the chains, any evident signs of Isaac’s abuse. He knew that there were things he couldn’t get rid of. There were scratches, signs of struggles, things that he didn’t have time to remove. He could, however, remove the idea from the police force that Isaac would have motive to kill his father. He could at least protect Isaac from that. 

He wondered vaguely if Mr. Lahey deserved to die. It didn’t take him long to decide that yes, he had. Well, maybe… He wasn’t equipped to make those kinds of choices. He was just feeling pretty vengeful when his werewolf senses picked up every last detail fo the horror.

When he got back into the house and found Isaac and Stiles he muttered the words, “It’s done.” They both looked at him. 

“What do I do?” Isaac asked softly. His voice sounded so lost, so dazed. 

“You need to talk to the police now,” Stiles said. “You need to play innocent and calm. Not that you’re not innocent, but you need to act like you have no idea about anything.” 

“That shouldn’t be hard…” Isaac muttered. “I feel like I’m going to throw up. I don’t know if I can talk calmly. That seems so…”

“Just steady your breathing and do it quickly,” Scott said. “Be honest, well, aside from the obvious parts of it. Tell them what you know, which is basically nothing.”   
“I’ll, uh, be back,” Stiles said. “Bathroom.”

When Stiles turned around and left the room, Isaac looked at Scott. Scott looked back at him and shook his head. “I don’t know what happened with your dad, Isaac,” he said honestly, “but god, he deserved what was coming to him.”

“I know,” Isaac responded. “I just loved my dad so much, but I know Scott.” 

Scott had a hard time understanding, but he did get it all the same. You couldn’t stop your heart from loving someone, even when all reason was taken away. He looked at Isaac and felt sorry for the other boy. “I’ll take you,” he said. “And Isaac, I’m sure that while this is getting sorted out, you can stay with my mom and I. We’ll make sure that you’re safe.” 

“I’ve really got nowhere to go,” Isaac muttered.


	5. Chapter 5

When they arrived at the police station, Isaac looked like he was going to faint, throw up, or both. He looked over at Scott and Scott felt so much sympathy for him. He put a hand on Isaac’s shoulder and then boy looked up at him with fear and admiration.

Scott had to admit that Isaac was pretty good at fake dramatics. “Is my father dead?” he asked, the moment that they were approached by Sheriff Stilinski. His eyes were teary and he looked so sincere and earnest, like he had no idea. Scott was even choked up for a minute. He had a feeling that lying to authority figures was something that Isaac was used to. That fact didn’t stick too well with him.

“Isaac, it’s going to be okay.” Scott had to admit that Stiles’ father was very reasonable, calm, well spoken. He handled devastating situations all the time. “Do you have any relatives that I can call into the station?”

Isaac shook his head.

Shortly after, the sheriff took Isaac in for questioning. “Go home boys,” ordered the Sheriff’s deputy, shaking her head at both of them. She was exhausted it seemed, eyes wide and saddened. 

Scott looked to Stiles and Stiles nodded. They then just started walking. “You know, Scott, you look like you’ve seen a ghost or two in the last day,” Stiles commented softly. “What’s going on in that head of yours?” 

“I want to know what could have created that kind of damage,” Scott said, walking slowly. “I have one answer, but it’s obviously not a good one…”

“Yeah…”

“We should see Derek.”

Derek, despite being an odd and elusive werewolf, was surprisingly easy to find. He was near the old Hale house and looked at them like he was expecting them. He crossed his arms and looked at them sharply, waiting for one of them to start talking. “Isaac Lahey’s father was killed last night,” Scott said. “We think it might have been by a werewolf. Do you know any werewolves that are…here?”

“Not particularly,” Derek said darkly.

The familiarity Derek had with Isaac’s name wasn’t lost on Scott. He didn’t flinch, his breathing didn’t change. Derek knew a lot about Isaac. He wanted more information. He looked to Stiles, who apparently didn’t even need werewolf abilities to see it too.

“How do you know about Isaac?” Scott asked softly. 

Derek shrugged his shoulders. “I’ve been watching him,” he said honestly. “I was near the graveyard, at my parents’ gravesite, and I saw him. I’ve been keeping a close eye on him for a couple of weeks now. He seemed like someone I should get to know.” 

Scott saw red at that. “Is this like with Erica?” he asked. Derek had turned one of his classmates, a soft-spoken girl with epilepsy, into a werewolf. She had completely been changed. Her disability vanished, her confidence rose and she was the most desired girl in the whole school. That fact, however, didn’t change the fact that she had sold her soul for it, essentially. Erica had no clue what she had gotten herself into. She had taken it willingly. She had become what Scott was willingly.

Derek shrugged.

“Did you know what his father did to him?” Scott asked.

Derek nodded.

“So what?” Scott asked. “What is your grand plan Derek? Do you go take kids who are particularly sad and vulnerable and turn them into werewolves? Is that the answer? Why do you do that Derek? I think that it’s because they’ve been through a lot and are a lot more easily controlled. You can’t just take a bunch of misfit kids and turn them into this. You can’t condemn them to this, especially after they’ve had hard lives.” 

“The bite is a gift, Scott,” Derek said dismissively.  
Scott shook his head. His distrust for Derek was growing steadily, every moment. “He’s alright going through hell right now,” Scott warned Derek, nudging Stiles to indicate that it was time to get out of there. “Let’s go…” He started walking off.

“Scott,” Derek said. He paused. “It seems like a werewolf killed Isaac’s father, but it’s not quite right. Something’s very off about it.” 

Scott continued moving, leaving Derek. He was very shaken up by this. His entire body was tense and his head was spinning. What on earth was there that was like a werewolf but not quite? He wasn’t equipped for this. He wasn’t prepared to deal with another bit of weirdness. He was just too young and stupid to handle all of these things at once. “Hey…” Stiles said, rubbing a hand gently against Scott’s shoulder. “It’s going to be okay…”

“Yeah…”

When they got back to Scott’s house, it was obvious that his mother was on the phone with the sheriff. Scott heard her even from outside. He grabbed Stiles. “Wait.” He wanted to listen before his mother knew that they were home. Stiles waited. 

“My mom is talking on the phone to your dad,” he explained to Stiles. “He’s asking her to let Isaac stay here tonight, until he fixes up the guest room at your house. He’s going to have Isaac stay there until the questioning is over and they figure out what to do with him. He has a record, so they’re suspecting him, but he doesn’t want to traumatize Isaac more than needed…”

“Hm.”

They walked into the house after that and Scott’s mother gave them a shaky smile. “Hi boys,” she said. “I suppose you’ve heard what’s going on. Isaac Lahey is going to stay here tonight, Scott. I know that you’re sort of friends…”

“Mhm,” Scott said softly. “Don’t worry Mom, I’ll make sure he’s okay.” 

They exchanged a dark glance. Stiles groaned and sat down in the living room. Scott joined him and they waited until Isaac arrived. When he arrived he looked pale, shaken and about to drop.


	6. Chapter 6

“Isaac, are you okay?” Scott asked, even though he knew the answer. There was no way that any sane person could be okay in Isaac’s position. Scott couldn’t even imagine what Isaac was going through. All Scott wanted to do was make things alright for Isaac, but at the very moment they were in, it seemed impossible.

  
Isaac opened his mouth but since no answer came out, Scott led him towards the staircase. Stiles shifted a little and looked at the two of them. “I have to go check on my dad,” he said with a slight frown. “I’ll see you two soon, okay?”

  
“Okay,” Scott said, appreciating Stiles’ concern for his father. That did, however, leave him and Isaac alone, staring at one another. Isaac looked at him with a vulnerable and confused expression. Scott could recognize the drooping eyelids and vague stare for what it was. Isaac was absolutely exhausted. “I’m going to take you to my room now okay?”  
Isaac followed him blindly upstairs. They entered the room and Scott started going through his drawer. He tossed a pair of pajamas at Isaac. “They’re not going to fit exactly, but they’ll work for tonight. You’ll take my bed and I’ll…”

  
“But Scott…”

  
Scott gave Isaac an unintentional look, which quieted the other teenager down. Isaac sat on his bed, idly. Scott showed the boy to the bathroom. “You can shower too, if you’re up for it.” The boy looked like he could barely stand, but Scott was sure he should make the offer, at least.

  
Isaac didn’t end up taking the offer of a shower. Instead, he went to the bathroom and changed and then came back. He got into Scott’s bed and was asleep pretty shortly after.   
Scott had no idea what to do next.

  
He watched Isaac sleep for a while. The boy shifted and twisted in his sleep. There were always subtle motions, even when he was still. It was like Isaac could not possibly find comfort. When he was still his legs kicked slightly, his breath hitched for one or two breaths, his hands trailed along the side of his legs. There was always some kind of active, struggling motion in Isaac. It was horrific. Isaac was a troubled soul at his very core.

  
Scott knew that he had to warn Isaac against Derek. In the position that Isaac was in, nothing could be more tempting than becoming a werewolf. Nothing could be more tempting than the prospect of power, of belonging. He couldn’t let Isaac take that deal. Isaac would never be in the position to understand it.

  
He just wasn’t sure how he was supposed to warn Isaac. Did he just tell him that a deluded werewolf wanted to turn him? It seemed pretty simple, but not simple enough.  
Around four in the morning, he got a text from Stiles. It simply read: “Someone else died.”

  
He groaned as he read it. He didn’t understand what was killing. It seemed like a werewolf, but it wasn’t. That didn’t make sense. Scott barely knew about werewolves, nevertheless there werewolf-but-not-werewolf cousins. He barely noticed that Isaac had sat up in bed and was looking at him and his turned phone screen.

“Does that say someone else died?” Isaac asked groggily.

  
Scott was caught off guard and couldn’t answer immediately. Finally he choked out a “yeah.”

  
Both boys were quiet for a short time. There was a long silence that lingered between the two of them. Scott looked at Isaac, into his eyes, and decided now was as good of a time as any. “Isaac,” he murmured. “Have you ever spoken to Derek Hale?”  
Isaac looked at him hesitantly. He seemed to be withholding the answer at first. “Yeah,” he said, a little glimmer of trust coming through eyes that were not at all trusting. “I talked to him a couple of weeks ago. He said he knew what my dad was doing and that there was a way out.” 

Rage burned Scott inside.

  
“Did he ever tell you what the way out was, Isaac?” he asked, hoping that he didn’t.

  
“No,” he said. “He said he’d find me later.”

  
Scott swallowed hard at that. He couldn’t let this happen. He just couldn’t. “Don’t meet up with Derek, okay?” he warned Isaac. “Don’t talk to him. I-I think his intentions are good but he’s not to be trusted okay? Just don’t trust him…”

  
“Why?”

  
“He’s just not someone you want to trust,” Scott said.

  
“I need a little more to go on than that,” Isaac said, for a moment not looking so weak and weary. Scott was pushing him and he, boldly, was pushing back.

  
“He’ll take advantage of you.”

  
“I’m not easy to take advantage of,” Isaac assured him. This definitely revealed a side of the other boy that Scott didn’t know yet. “I know what you’re thinking, but I’m not weak. I’ll protect myself, I promise, but I’ll listen to you Scott. I trust you.”

  
That was when Scott’s phone rang. It was Stiles.

  
“Dude, can you come here?”


	7. Chapter 7

Isaac left Scott’s house shortly after Scott had. His head was a mess and he felt that if he didn’t walk, move, do something that his head would explode. His father was dead. His father was dead and his whole world was under investigation. He never imagined that something like this could happen to him. Even as bad as things got, he never imagined that it could all fall apart. Everything that he’d once understood didn’t make sense anymore. He’d been saved by a werewolf and then his father had died. 

Despite the fact that his father was dead, Isaac still wondered about what Derek Hale had to offer. He had told Isaac that his father’s abuse could be stopped. He had told him that there was a way out of the hell that he was living. What was the way out that he was offering? Still, his instinctive trust of Scott made it hard to think about Derek’s offer. Scott had told him that Derek was not to be trusted.

He knew that even with the evidence against his father gone, he’d still be suspected. He had a past that involved activity that was hardly dangerous, but at the same time criminal. He had resorted to some negative actions in the past. He had done it to survive and it was hardly murder, but it’d still make him a suspect. 

He even wondered, for a moment, if he’d have eventually killed his father. He’d thought about it once or twice, subsequently hating himself for having the thoughts. He thought about locking his father in the freezer, leaving the man there until he suffocated or starved to death. It was one of the darkest thoughts in the recesses of his brain, but it was still there.

He went back to the cemetery. It was weird, but even after getting the job there, the place drew him. It wasn’t the usual teenage fascination with death, either. It just calmed him down. He needed that calm more than he needed anything, because he needed an option for an escape when he really had none. 

“I would say that I’m sorry your father died, but I’m not.” 

Isaac turned to see Derek Hale standing in front of him. The handsome man had both arms crossed and was looking at Isaac with a sympathetic, gentle expression. There was something hard and worn about him, though that let Isaac know he had lived a lot of pain.

“What are you doing here?” Isaac asked. “How did you know my father died? “

Derek shrugged his shoulders, casually. “Word travels fast in a small town,” he said. “Trust me; this town has always been that way.” 

Isaac walked towards Derek, standing when he was face to face with the man. He looked deep into his eyes. “When you told me that there was a way out,” he said softly, firmly, “what did you mean by that?”

Derek smiled wryly at that. “Did Scott warn you off?” he asked. 

Isaac nodded.

“Scott’s a good kid,” Derek said reverently. “He’s a fantastic kid, but he’s never really known hurt. His mother loved him, supported him and aside from being an awkward kid with asthma he never struggled in the past. He doesn’t know what it feels like to be weak.”

“What were you offering me?”

Derek’s eyes flashed a deep red. That was when Isaac understood. He took a step back. “You’re like Scott is,” he said.

“I’m stronger,” Derek told him. “With the bite you’d be strong too. You’d be faster, physically stronger. You’d be able to defend yourself against anything. You could hear things, see things that you never imagined. You could smell emotions - desire, fear, lust.” 

“Oh.”

Derek leaned up close to him. “It also means that you would never be alone again,” he said, looking at Isaac imploringly. He was staring so deeply at Isaac that Isaac could almost feel him trying to get into his heart. “The wolf will make you strong and you’ll be part of a pack, a family. You’d have a family, Isaac.” 

Isaac thought about that – family. It was stupid, but he wanted a family so much. He always had tried to make his family work. He had tried to get Camden to pay attention to him, to actually care about the little brother who admired him. He had then moved to trying to make his father stop and love him again. He wanted a family so much. 

“Why did Scott tell me not to trust you?” he asked. “If you’re gonna play, Derek, then I want total honesty.” 

“I told you what kind of person Scott is,” Derek said. “He has this strange sense of morals that comes from a sheltered childhood and an urge to do some good. He can’t understand.” 

“I have to think,” Isaac said. He needed some time, any time, just to process this. His head was going at a mile a minute and there were too many things rattling around together. He needed some release. He needed just a little peace of mind. He walked past Derek.

“Don’t take too long,” Derek quipped.

“I want it, but I’m in a mess and I want to think,” Isaac snapped before running back to Scott’s house. He wasn’t dumb. He knew when someone’s mind was close to overload. He knew when everything was going to boil over to the point of no return. He needed time.

When he got back to Scott’s house, the sheriff was there again. The usual round of questioning commenced. It was the same old questions again and again. He asked the same old question that Isaac had been asked fifty times the day before and Isaac wondered if he honestly thought the answer would change. 

“Did you have reason to hurt your father?”

“No, sir,” Isaac answered, the good little boy. It couldn’t be further from the truth, but there was no place for truth in the world he lived in. He just had to survive and maybe he could come out of it stronger.

Maybe he could come out of it stronger…


	8. Chapter 8

The questioning drained Isaac completely. There was nothing that he could do to make it stop, so he just kept answering the same old questions with an empty expression. He couldn’t do anything that would warrant suspicion, even as his anxiety was heightened more and more with every second. 

Finally, he was allowed to go up to Scott’s bedroom. He opened the door to find Scott sitting there. Scott looked at him with confusion and extreme worry in his eyes. Isaac wasn’t used to anyone looking at him like they were worried about him. 

“I smell Derek on you,” Scott said. Isaac wondered why Derek was such a concern of Scott’s. Derek was a werewolf; Scott was a werewolf. It had to be more beneficial for the two young werewolves to work together than against each other, did it not? 

Isaac shrugged a little. “I ran into him while I was out walking,” he said. “He propositioned me again. He wants to turn me into a werewolf.”

“He’s power hungry, now that he’s an alpha,” Scott said quickly. “There’s no way that you can accept, alright?”

“Why?” Isaac asked.

Scott looked up at him. “Derek is power-hungry,” Scott said immediately. “His family was killed and he’s eager to make his own pack strong. He’s selfishly motivated and wants to be strong, but he’s not. He’s going to take advantage of your weaknesses just like he took advantage of Erica’s a couple of weeks back. He’s going to use you to make him stronger.”

Isaac had to admit that he feared being used, but he didn’t fully understand Scott. “You have to understand why it’s tempting to me,” he said.

“That is what he’s banking on, Isaac.” 

Isaac was definitely afraid that Derek was going to take advantage of his weaknesses and he was completely aware that Derek had played into his desires for a family and strength. Still, he couldn’t deny the fact that he still wanted it with every fiber of his being. Derek didn’t have a family. That meant that Derek was motivated to rebuild. He was motivated to rebuild in the same way that Isaac was. Maybe Scott was wrong.

“The world has become very complicated Scott,” he said. “Don’t worry about me, please. I’m not even sure if I’ll be in Beacon Hills for long. I’m only sixteen and I don’t have any living relatives. I have some money, I’m sure, from my father’s insurance, but as soon as his death’s investigation is complete they may send me away. I’m not your problem.”

“I care about you,” Scott said.

Isaac sat down on the other teen’s bed, those words ringing in his ears. Scott cared about him. It didn’t make sense. “I need rest,” he said, unceremoniously. He was just tired and he needed a moment to still his racing thoughts.

*  
When Scott saw the look in Isaac’s eyes, he was scared. He had no idea what Isaac was going through. He had no way to comprehend such incredible pain. He did, however, fear for him. He was in such a vulnerable place. Scott didn’t know what to do. 

He left the room, leaving Isaac to get some rest. He then called Stiles. He waited for any sign of answer. “Come on man,” he said. He needed something, absolutely anything at all. He needed someone to talk to him. It kept ringing and ringing and as it rang, Scott began thinking about the positives to Isaac deciding to be a werewolf. 

He could definitely use someone who understood this. Yes, he had Stiles, but having another werewolf in his life would be an incredibly valuable connection. Isaac also would be able to defend himself in ways that he’d never been able to before. Someone who had gone through what Isaac did, well, maybe that was something that they needed… Scott wished that he trusted Derek a little more; if he did, then he wouldn’t be so afraid. 

He hated that Derek exploited Isaac’s loneliness. Scott knew what it was like to be lonely from time to time and he even had the greatest best friend ever. Isaac’s loneliness had to be far worse now that he had no family or friends left. That was a very powerful tool and Scott wasn’t sure that Derek Hale was the one whose hands deserved that tool.

He hung up the phone, because Stiles would not answer. Just as he did, his mother walked by. “Are you okay Scott?” she asked, her voice extremely gentle.

“Yeah, I’m good,” he lied to his mother. He was getting so tired of lying to his mother. She meant the world to him and he didn’t want to do it anymore. This was why he could really use someone like Isaac. “This thing with Isaac is just hard. I can’t imagine what he’s going through.” 

She leaned over and hugged him. He leaned close to his mother, enjoying the comfort she offered. “Sadly, I don’t think any of us really can Scott. Between us and John and Stiles though…he’s not going to be alone through this, I promise.”

He gave her a tiny smile. “Thanks Mom.”

“Always.”


	9. Chapter 9

Scott and Stiles arrived on the scene of yet another murder. If asked, they’d never admit they were listening in on the local police radio, but they so were. Stiles justified that it was a necessary deception and it was their job as local werewolf and sidekick to do so. By the time they got there, the small local video store was swarmed with police cars. “My dad is going to murder me one of these days,” Stiles muttered under his breath. 

They avoided Sheriff Stilinski for the first five minutes, at least. They found out that the man, a local store clerk, was murdered brutally in the same manner that Isaac’s father had been. There was no motive, no connections, but the police had already seen just how alike the two murders were. That was when their five minutes ran out and the man approached them with fire in his eyes. “Stiles!” he yelled. “What are you doing here? I can’t believe that you’d come out here. Were you listening…”

“No,” Scott said, cutting off the sheriff’s rant and saving the moment. “We just saw sirens and we’re starting to get really concerned. We both grew up in this town and now people are dying left and right.”

The man softened up at that. Stiles gave Scott a look. Scott gave him one back that said that he learned from the best. He really had learned from the best, sadly. “It’s going to be okay boys,” he said. “Yeah, there was another murder, but I need you to leave. Stiles, please, just leave.” 

Stiles nodded and left. Scott had to hurry his pace to even begin to follow him. “Stiles?” he asked, obviously concerned for his best friend.

Stiles let out a sigh and then turned back to Scott. “My dad has been put through so much hell by the supernatural stuff,” he murmured, shaking his head as if trying to cast away a bad dream. “He doesn’t even know it exists, yet he’s constantly in danger because of it. It’s so screwed up Scott.” 

Scott reached over and did the only thing he could. He hugged Stiles really quickly, letting him know that his best friend was there, even if he was part of the very mess that made Stiles so upset. “I’m sorry man.” He knew that it wasn’t his fault, but at the same time he had been the one to drag Stiles into all of this.

Stiles accepted the comfort, but what quick to change the subject. “What could be killing these people?” Stiles asked. “It’s kind of like a werewolf, but Derek even said that it was different. Well, what’s different than a werewolf, but like a werewolf?”

“I was thinking like some other kind of shapeshifter…”

When Stiles gave him a look that included a raised eyebrow, Scott shrugged. “I may be stupid, but I can read and do research too, Stiles,” he said, feeling a little bit edgy. “There are other kinds of shape shifter legends besides werewolves.” 

“I think I’m going to go get some information,” Stiles said. “Let’s…meet up later?”

Scott nodded. Later. Yeah. He really needed to see how Isaac was doing.  
Scott arrived back home to find Isaac sitting on the end of his bed. The other boy didn’t see him immediately, so that gave him a second to really take in his appearance. He looked as though he hadn’t slept in a good year. He looked like he was going to pass out. “Hi Isaac,” Scott said softly, feeling like an idiot, but needing to ask the obvious anyway. “Are you okay?”

“Of course I’m not okay!” Isaac snapped, but the force he intended to be behind those words wasn’t there. They fell short and he sounded like he was on the verge of crying. “My father’s dead and everyone seems convinced that I’m hiding something. I am hiding something, but it’s not the murderous intentions they seem to think I’m hiding. I’m hiding the fact that he beat the crap out of me, locked me in a freezer and I was saved by a freaking werewolf!” Isaac would have been sobbing, had he been most guys, but he was holding back. Scott did the only thing he could think of doing.

He pulled Isaac into a hug. Isaac’s body immediately stiffened at the hug, but then he sunk into it. He let out a sigh of relief. Scott held onto him, marveling over his reaction to the simple gesture. He wanted to let go of Isaac, considering the fact that their hug had overstepped the average acceptable length of a hug between two males, but he couldn’t. He just couldn’t.

“I’m losing my mind, Scott,” Isaac muttered against his shoulder. Finally, Scott was able to let go of him. “Everything’s changing too fast…”

“I know how you feel,” Scott said, understanding at least the part about life changing at rapid speeds. He still felt, most of the time, like he was the asthmatic loser who couldn’t play lacrosse to save his life. The fact that he was now a werewolf and trying to defend his family and friends against mysterious murders was…just beyond him.

“How were you bitten?” Isaac asked.

Scott blinked at the random switch in topics. He sat down and moved himself a little bit away from Isaac. He wasn’t sure how to tell him this. He figured he probably should, because it would help him explain his hesitance to let anyone lead the life he now did. Still, it wasn’t something he could just say because it required a lot of explanation. “It’s hard to explain,” he managed.

“Try.” 

Scott explained it as best as he could. “Stiles had heard about a body being found in the woods, which, yes, kind of makes us sound a little psycho.” Scott shrugged his shoulders. In the moment, he had just gone along with it. “I got bit. It’s pretty simple. The bite mark healed and the next thing I knew I was changed.” 

Scott tried his best to show the struggles. “Stiles had to chain me up and it didn’t even work, that first full moon,” he said. “I lost myself. I had completely been taken over by this animal. It took me months to control it, to make it a part of myself.” He was emphasizing the bad, yes, but he didn’t want Isaac to feel tempted. He didn’t want the other teenager to think that it was a way out. “It was miserable.”

“What about the good parts?” Isaac asked. He looked at Scott, as if he were daring him to lie. Scott looked into Isaac’s eyes and then looked away, a little awkward.

“I guess that being cured of asthma was pretty nice,” he said, trying to make light of it. “You know, starting to rock at lacrosse. That’s…about it though.”

“Without being a werewolf, you would have never been able to save me,” Isaac pointed out with a slight smile. Isaac knew what he was doing and Scott recognized it too. He looked at Isaac and there was a slight blush on Isaac’s face. 

“It’s not all bad,” Scott relented. “Let’s find out what’s killing people first.”


End file.
